Monday, May 30, 2011

Instant Feedback: Memorable Memorial Day

If you excuse the technical difficulties and the uncharacteristic clunkiness of the Ziggler/Kofi match, this might have been a pitch-perfect RAW. Just amazing how much of what they did right. I mean, I'm buying more and more of R-Truth as a clinically insane guy one felony away from Arkham Asylum each week, and John Cena this week was a perfect canvas to play off of. Seriously, the main event and overrun were amazing television. Imagine that, Cena gets outsmarted and bothered, and it's great TV. Hmm....

The thing with RAW is that whenever the wrestling is good, the show tends to be better. Let's ignore the US non-title match to start; again, everyone has an off-night, even Dolph Ziggler. The Divas are a non-starter anymore, so I won't even bitch about them here (Although I will later in the week). They gave us a good bit of good wrestling this week. Punk vs. Rey? Awesome. Bourne vs. Swagger? Awesome x 2. Cena vs. Truf? Okay although with a VERY clever finish.

But it wasn't just the wrestling that was good this week. They continued building Alex Riley to the point where I think they may have a burgeoning star on their hands with him. I mean, they are playing the right strings with him, very reminiscent of the Flair/Perfect/Heenan turn saga in 1992. They're actually building an honest-to-God wrestling feud sub-the main event with Evan Bourne and Jack Swagger. They had a match with a clean finish last week, extracurriculars afterwards and then a clean, traded upset win this week? And then the finish to the main event, with Truf doing perhaps the best thing he's ever done and ever will do in WWE, throwing the soda into the face of the fan he was taunting at the top of the show? Holy shit, so good.

But the capper was Kharma's segment. First off, warmest congratulations to Kia Stevens, the person, for her pregnancy. As an expecting father, it's the best feeling in the world to be bringing life into the world. Second, it was amazing they let Kharma, the character, go out there and cut a heartfelt promo. Did it ruin Kharma's mystique? Yeah, it might have. Would it have been better to have her cold-cock Michael Cole or do something else that would have elicited a suspension? Maybe. Were the obviously baiting bully comments by the Bellas over the top? Given that they were the heels in the situation, no. Was it stupid for Lawler to come to Kharma's defense when he was doing the same thing to Vickie Guerrero even earlier in the show? Definitely.

That being said, I thought the segment worked and it was way better than I had expected it to be. It also gives them an earnest babyface that connected with the crowd to bring back in the future. Just the cap on a RAW that was unusually awesome tonight.

Remember you can contact TH and ask him questions about wrestling, life or anything else. Please refer to this post for contact information. He always takes questions!